Dance Consortium brings Canada’s leading contemporary ballet company Ballet BC back to the UK

UK premieres by Crystal Pite and Johan Inger

Opens Sadler’s Wells 20 & 21 May
Seven venue tour to 11 June 2025

2025 sees Dance Consortium bring Ballet BC, one of the world’s best contemporary ballet companies, to seven British towns and cities with the UK premieres of epic dance works by two exceptional choreographers.

Vancouver-based Ballet BC received critical and audience plaudits for its UK debut in 2018.  This time it presents an eye-catching double bill by four-time Olivier award-winning Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and the legendary Swedish choreographer and longtime Ballet BC collaborator Johan Inger.

Commissioned by Ballet BC in 2023, Johan Inger’s PASSING takes audiences across a vast theatrical landscape of human emotion, embodied by a cast of 20 extraordinary dancers. Bold and bright staging and costumes, elements of folk dance, hip hop and swing are juxtaposed with the sense of loss and aching sadness which run through the piece. The beautifully complex and captivating movement reveals human relationships in extreme times, both for individuals and for social groups.  PASSING is set to an original score by Amos Ben-Tal with selections from Erik Enocksson and Louis T. Hardin (aka Moondog).

Four-time Olivier Award winner Crystal Pite has reimagined her 2008 work Frontier for Ballet BC. Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater, this new version has been created on an epic scale for 24 dancers, including four dancers from the Rambert School in London. Frontier is a visionary, enigmatic work, a portrait of the invisible forces that move us, with mysterious black-hooded shadow figures personifying our doubts and fear of the unknown.  A spine-tingling score opens and closes with choral pieces by Eric Whitacre bookending a meditation on human breath by Pite’s longtime collaborator, the Vancouver composer Owen Belton.

Crystal Pite says: “I liked the idea of unknown forces at work in our galaxy and in our universe and in our brains. How lovely or poetic is it that scientists even call it dark matter? I find that mystery very beautiful. As a creator, I find a pleasing parallel between what we don’t know about the universe and what we don’t know about consciousness. Creation for me is about venturing into unknown territory.”

Joe Bates, Chief Executive of Dance Consortium, says: “We are thrilled that Dance Consortium is bringing Ballet BC back to the UK to tour again in 2025. Our member venues reported that the previous tour was ‘some of the best dance they had ever seen’ and this stunning programme is sure to excite audiences around the country. I have seen both pieces at their premieres in 2024 and the emotional response I had to the work was extraordinary – I dare audiences round the country not to be moved!’